📣 WWI historical with fantasy elements featuring two siblings who have been separated by the horrors of war

Thanks to the publisher & Netgalley for the complimentary ARC and the publisher for the complimentary hardcopy. All opinions provided are my own.

📖 what are you currently reading? I’m reading a really great fantasy called The City of Stardust by Georgia Summers.

The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden is one of those engrossing—& not in a polite way—books that grabs you & doesn’t let go.

Set during World War I & featuring two siblings—a woman & a man—who have been separated by war, this book is largely concerned with the front, the combat hospitals & ruined villages & military fortifications where protagonist Laura & her brother Freddie find themselves.

This is a world that’s been in flux for a long time. Their parents worried & warned about the end of days in the 1910s & their once outlandish, paranoid predictions feel all too real in World War I.

Former combat nurse Laura is retired but—upon receiving mysterious items that belonged to her brother & potentially contradictory news about what happened to him—she resolves to return to Europe, serve as a nurse again, & use her downtime to investigate what actually happened.

Laura’s perspective is fascinating, as is her brother’s, who we shortly learn was imprisoned in a collapsed fortification with an enemy German soldier. Left to die, the lines between sides blur, & their journey together further complicates it as their relationship is tested by violence & death, potential & actual.

The war horrors in this book are real & imagined, & there’s a visceral violence to what happens to people ravaged by war & who are ravaging others. It’s often sad & disconcerting but there is hope too, in the relationship between Laura & Freddie & their burgeoning loves.

This is a fantasy that will hold your attention, entice you & leave you feeling both hopeful & unsettled.

4.5 ⭐️. Out 02/13.

[ID: Jess’s hand, partially covered in a tan sweatshirt, holds the book in front of a red, orange, & green set of trees.]

I am an unabashed lover of Arden's Winternight Trilogy and was curious to see if I'd like her writing under entirely different circumstances. Spoiler alert - I do. This is one of the best books, if not THE best, that I've read all year. Set amidst WWI, Laura, a discharged Canadian nurse, is perplexed when she receives her enlisted brother's things, but no death notice, just a "presumed missing." She goes BACK out into the forbidden zone to work again in a hospital setting while also looking for her brother.

Meanwhile, her brother has undergone an absolutely horrific experience with a German soldier, and is looking for escape, mainly a mental escape. He becomes entwined with The Fiddler, who haunts the haunted, shell shocked men of the Great War and slowly loses pieces of himself. Laura finds herself joining forces with the German, Winter, in order to try and save her brother.

This book was beautifully written, with elements of psychological horror I've never seen before in lit fiction. I will be recommending this to EVERYONE when it's published.

Katherine Arden’s Winternight Trilogy is one of my favorite series, so when I saw she had written a new book, I knew I had to read it. I was not disappointed. This book is haunting, magical, and moving.
This book is set in WWI with our main character, Laura, recently discharged from being a nurse on the warfront due to an injury. She’s forced to go home and leave her brother Freddie, a soldier, behind. Soon after returning home, Laura is sent Freddie’s personal effects. She sets out to investigate what happened to him. Back on the war front, Freddie finds himself unexpectedly allied with an enemy soldier. They come across a mysterious man who may be more than he seems.
The war scenes in this book were haunting and moving. I definitely found this book hard to read at times due to that. But that just goes to show Arden’s mastery of writing. The scenes also serve a purpose so that the audience knows what the characters have gone through and to better understand why they made the decisions they did.
I feel like the book focused more on Laura and her working through her trauma and her quest to find out what happened to Freddie than it focused on Freddie’s POV. For that reason and due to how the characters were written, I found myself more connected to Laura and wanting to read her chapters more than his. I also found the fiddler to be a very intriguing character who reminded me of Morozko from the Winternight trilogy at times.
My only big complaint is that I felt like the ending of the book was too rushed. Things seemed to wrap up too neatly with a bow after everything that happened in the book and all the things the characters went through. However, overall this was a very interesting read and I highly recommend it to those that are a fan of historical fiction with some fantasy thrown in.

NetGalley gave me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. While I am a fan of Katherine Arden's previous works, I can't say that I loved this one, and, honestly, I didn't even really like it all that much. The characters fell flat for me and the story itself was just okay.

I went into this book completely blind. I had not read the synopsis or heard anything about the storyline. I enjoyed the Winternight Triology and knew that I’d read whatever Arden wrote in the future. This book was spectacular. I have been trying to come up with a good review for The Warm Hands of Ghosts for a couple of days now, and I still am struggling to find the words to convey how much I enjoyed this story. I felt like I was in the warzone. I felt the pain and terror of the pillbox. Arden paints a very real picture of WWI, drawing on the experiences of real soldiers and historical accounts. I enjoyed the dual POVs. Both characters have witnessed unspeakable horrors yet each find hope in their own ways. I will be posting my review to Instagram in the next week.

Warm Hands of Ghosts is another brilliant story from the master storyteller, Katherine Arden. Going in, I already loved her books from the Winternight Trilogy, so I was expecting to like this book, despite it being a total different genre (war novel) than her previous books. What I didn’t expect was just how much I would love it.

Beautiful and heartbreaking, this haunting book about war, love and loss is so vividly told, it gets under your skin and stays there. The supernatural element adds an extra layer of richness to the story that I was not expecting. It is obvious that Arden did her research as she was able to so powerfully capture the atmosphere of war.

As with any of Katherine Arden’s books, I totally recommend reading. 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley for sending me an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden was a haunting depiction of family devotion, grief, and the courage to survive and live again. It was an evocative and beautiful read.

With hints of magical realism, the author introduces characters that suffer from their experiences with the war yet are still determined to find the light at the end of the tunnel. While at times heart wrenching, the overall tone of the book was hopeful and inspiring.

For obvious reasons, this was a five-star read. The writing was impeccable, the characters were idiosyncratic, and the plot was perfectly paced and a standout from other similar books. This atmospheric tale is perfect for those chilly nights when you just want to cozy up with a good book. Highly recommend.

I rate this book 4 out of 5 stars. I really loved this book! The story line was so captivating, it drew me in, and I thought it was very interesting to have the main character’s point of view be a year apart from the secondary character’s point of view. The way that both point of views wove into each other was very well done. I think it was a great book and recommend it. I love that the author included a mysterious character that acts as an urban legend among the soldiers and that really added a fantastical touch to a WW1 era novel. The fact that this book takes place during WW1 was something that I really gravitated towards because I’m a huge fan of books that take place during the different eras of wartime and any other historical fiction book. This is definitely a good book to read if you’re a fan of historical fiction books! This book was very good at making you feel all of the emotions that were running high during the war, as well as making you emotionally invested in each of the character’s lives and journeys. The only thing I will say is that you really have to pay attention to the labeled dates at the top of each chapter because if you don’t pay attention to them between the 2 main character’s chapters it can kind of get a little bit confusing to remember when certain things are happening. That might’ve just been a personal struggle since I have a hard time remembering all the little bits and pieces, but I figured it was worth mentioning. This might also have been intentional to make you feel unoriented and lost like the characters were, so I don’t subtract too many points for that. Other than that, I really love this and I will be buying a copy once it’s released to the public. Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this wonderful book.

The Warm Hands of Ghosts is a beautifully written and haunting story. A human tale about the horrors of war and bonds that keep us going, I appreciated the storytelling and loved Freddie's chapters. The dual POV just didn't quite work for me. Bouncing between Laura and Freddie took me out of some of the more poignant or tense scenes, and I wonder if this would be a higher rated book for me if it was just from Freddie's POV. I also found him to be the more compelling sibling. I understand Laura's motivation, but never felt truly connected to her character as I did Freddie. He had much more interesting and emotional journey.

Overall a beautiful story, but left me wanting more

Wow… The metaphor this book gives in the effects of war of those on the frontlines as well as their families moved me to my core. From the description, I imagined this was a horror story with literal ghosts and superficial just scares in the heart of the Great War, but I was so wrong. The story was heartbreaking in its premise of siblings separated by war and familial loss try to find each other across hundreds of miles. The fact that the séance culture was strong during this time adds another layer to the story when you’ve experienced the trauma of war and the loss of a parent while not knowing if the last of your family was still alive or not. The beautiful writing style gave way to emotional connections between characters. I’m not much of a crier, but I cried throughout this novel. I love the metaphor of what some characters stood for and how they overcame their battles in the end. Even if you don’t like paranormal stories or historical fiction, this is a must read for all. Thank you Netgalley for my ARC!

Oh, wow! What a wonderful book! This is a great story that kept me reading. Telling the story during WWI made it even more intriguing. This story is well written and should not be missed.

Ever since reading the Winternight Trilogy by Katherine Arden, I have been anxiously awaiting her next work, and I went into this book with high expectations because of how much I loved the trilogy. Unfortunately, this didn't live up to my expectations for a couple of reasons.

In this novel, we follow Laura Iven and her brother Freddie. Laura is a celebrated WWI nurse who has been injured and discharged from duty only to return to home to Halifax and experience another traumatic event resulting in the loss of her parents. Laura then receives a box with her brother's effects and a note saying that he was lost in combat. Something isn't quite adding up. With nothing left to lose, Laura volunteers at a private hospital back in Belgium so that she might have the chance to search for her brother. Meanwhile, Laura's brother Freddie has woken up trapped in a pillbox with an enemy soldier. As they fight to survive, their reliance on each other becomes paramount. As they find their way back to a city, the one person willing to help them is a violinist, Faland, who seems to have endless connections and solutions to their most immediate problems. In return, all Faland asks is to tell him stories.

I loved the characters in this book. Laura and Freddie and Faland all have such distinct personalities and outlooks on the world, and I loved the way that each fought through the mess of a war. The horrors of war and the ways that it affected soldiers mentally I think were also well-explored without being too graphic. Additionally, I loved the way Arden weaves a bit of the fantastic into this story. What really missed the mark for me in this book was the way that Arden begins to weave in aspects of the apocalyptic into the story, and never fully delivers on it. A large part of Laura and Freddie's childhood centers around preparing for the apocalypse, and when they experience what many real soldiers and nurses viewed as the apocalypse, there isn't any tie-in to their childhood at all. Arden's previous work deeply explored the intersection between faith, religion, and folk or popular belief, and I expected the same depth in this book. On that count, I was quite disappointed.

Amid the horrendous tragedies and turmoil of World War I, nurse Laura will stop at nothing to discover the fate of her brother Freddie who is fighting in Belgium and goes missing. This book is full of intrigue, mystery, and the unexplained. Death and ghosts follow at every corner. I absolutely loved this book. It is very different as it portrays the war in a very ragged honest way and constantly has you turning the page to find out what happens next. The storyline is 10/10. Definitely one of my tops reads of 2023.

Katherine Arden is an absolute master of writing and this book only continues to prove that. During "the Great War," Laura finds out that her brother has gone missing, but something feels off. Laura decides that she is going to figure out what happened.

This novel was so unexpected in all of the right ways. It's very different from her other novels, but brings the same level of atmosphere and care for her characters that we've all come to love. It is lush and beautifully written, but does not pull its punches on some of the harder topics. I highly recommend this book, even if historical fiction/fantasy is not your thing.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Nowhere seems more appropriate for a story about the lost and forsaken than a story set in one of the World Wars, whether it’s a fantasy or straight historical fiction. And the search for one of those lost, forsaken souls sparks off the events of “The Warm Hands Of Ghosts,” Katherine Arden’s historical fantasy about a woman’s search for her brother, and that brother’s fall from grace. It’s not a comfortable or complicated book, but it does have a certain dark, dismal charm.

It’s 1918, World War I is raging, and nurse Laura Iven has little other than her work to occupy her – her parents died in freak accidents, she suffered some nasty injuries in her field work at the front, and her brother Freddy has just been declared missing, presumed dead. Then a seance tells her that Freddie is still alive – and though she doesn’t entirely believe it, she decides to go back to the front with her new friends Pim Shaw and Mary Burton to find out what happened to him.

Soon after arriving, the women take shelter in a strange, dreamlike hotel, where a man named Faland plays the fiddle and tantalizes people with a magic mirror. While Laura searches for some sign of her brother, she is told stories about the Fiddler and the sinister spell he weaves over the people who find him – and she begins to wonder if Freddie’s fate might somehow be connected to this man.

Alternating chapters also show what happened to Freddie the year before – how he was left for dead in an overturned pillbox, with a German soldier named Hans Winter. The two men bond as they try to find a way back to one of their armies, and Freddie goes to extreme lengths to make sure his new friend will survive. But these lengths also put him in the hands of Faland, and a Faustian pact that will steal away what is most precious to him.

“The Warm Hands of Ghosts” is a book that is easier to appreciate than to actually enjoy – it’s a beautifully-written, beautifully-sculpted tale about the horrors of war, the price people will pay to escape them, and the bonds between people facing those horrors. But at the same time, Katherine Arden’s tale has stretches that aren’t exactly gripping, especially in Laura’s part of the story, and while the grey bleakness of the war is well-explored, she doesn’t really fully address the implications or theological aspects of the story that she brings up.

Furthermore, the alternating chapters from Laura and Freddie’s perspectives do start to sap some of the tension, especially when Faland’s true nature reveals itself – you kind of want the story to just stick to Freddie and explore the horror of his situation. Instead, every time something important happens in one of the parallel narratives, it’s cut off and we switch to the other one.

The characters also are a mixed bag – Laura is a character that it’s easier to admire than to like, being a rather cold and prickly woman. It’s entirely understandable, and well-displayed, how she became that way, but it’s hard to warm up to her. Supporting characters like the enchantingly feminine Pim or the bluntly practical American doctor Jones end up feeling more like characters you want to follow. And Freddie is a more raw and dynamic character, since his journey is more horrifying and gripping, as is his relationship with enemy soldier Winter.

“The Warm Hands of Ghosts” is a striking, well-written and well-researched tale of war, loss and the sinister forces that underlie human horrors. However, it needed more fleshing-out of some aspects of the plot, and a heroine who feels less cold and armored.

"Do not despair. Endings—they are beginnings too."

[Review contains spoilers]

Let me start off by saying that the title of this book is absolutely beautiful. It is so evocative, and the promise of a haunting WWI tale of ghosts and the strength of sibling bonds made me very excited to pick up The Warm Hands of Ghosts. It sounded very much like Katherine Arden's latest novel was specifically catered to my interests. And perhaps there was just too much hype to live up to because the story that I ended up getting here was incredibly lackluster.

➺ The characters: an emotionally distant cast

The Warm Hands of Ghost was a novel that felt very...safe? What I mean is it doesn't really take any risks in terms of storytelling. However, this by itself is not a dealbreaker for me. No plot is ever entirely unique or groundbreaking - I can love and enjoy stories that have been told a thousand times over if the characters are complex and engaging. The Warm Hands of Ghosts is narrated via alternating POV chapters between Laura, a combat nurse during WWI, and Freddie, her missing solider brother. Even though we're with Freddie and Laura through some of the darkest moments of their lives, I felt like there was always this wall between the reader and these characters. I could never connect to their emotional struggles, which in my opinion is crucial for a story about war.

Laura has all of the makings of a great protagonist on paper but for some reason just never came alive for me. She is apparently persistent, clever, strong-willed...but outside of this I cannot tell you anything about her as a person. She doesn't grow or change in any significant way. She never truly exists outside of the confines of being a sister desperately searching for her brother, and this relationship defines too much of who Laura is. In fact, the only real "growth" she goes through is related to her brother, when in the end she realizes that saving him did not bring her the peace she was desperately hoping to find.

Freddie, on the other hand, is a little more interesting. He is an artist with a poetic soul, forced by the hand of history to grow up before his time. If you've read any war fiction or even true accounts, his character will at once feel very familiar. That doesn't make the suffering he endures any less substantial, but, like Laura, Freddie never really grows beyond this. There was so much missed opportunity with his character, which has already been encapsulated so much better in other reviews than I can articulate.

The rest of the cast was just as bland and all felt like the author was trying too hard to be clever. We've got three quirky elderly sisters who may or may not be clairvoyants, a beautiful widow who is of course more than she appears to be, a mysterious violinist who may or may not be the devil. Speaking of this violinist, I thought that Faland was a terrible "antagonist." Having this primary villain be the devil just downplayed all the actual human evil and atrocities that happened in the rest of the story. I suppose there was some attempt at nuance with him offering people solace from these aforementioned atrocities, but it didn't work for me personally.

➺ The plot: a failed blend of the historical and fantastical

"A man once told me, in great earnest, how he saw his brother, dead three years, in his dugout, leading him away just before the heavy came down. Ghosts have warm hands, he kept telling me, as though it was the greatest secret in the world"

The actual plot of this book was all over the place. Entire chapters would go by where nothing substantial happens, and then Laura rescuing her brother occurs in such a short and anticlimactic manner. The various chapter headings hearkening to a religious Armageddon felt like they were used solely for vibes and didn't offer anything for the story's structure or setting.

The Warm Hands of Ghosts was also much more lacking in magic than I was expecting based on the blurb. I knew I wasn't getting a full-blown fantasy, but I was, however, expecting more fantastical elements blended with the historical setting akin to something like Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth. This blending of fantasy and reality is always very difficulty to pull off though because we're dealing with an actual period in history and the tragedies of war which were very real. It definitely wasn't accomplished successfully here.

➺ The writing: a stilted and distant voice

I also keep hearing a lot of praise regarding Arden's writing and so was looking forward to finally dive into her work. This book must not be representative of her best writing though because I personally didn't find anything special about it. There's a lot of descriptive prose but nothing I would describe as "poetic" or "lush."

I was overall disappointment by The Warm Hands of Ghosts and the promise of the brilliant and haunting story that this could have been. In the end, it did not really do anything to separate itself from the myriad of other historical fiction books about there.

I was so excited to read this, coming from one of my all time favorite authors! It is different from the Winternight trilogy, but fantastic in its own way. The horrors of war and loss were real, each telling of Laura and Freddie's experiences and losses were tangible. The perspective from a combat nurse and soldier were captivating on their own, but the addition of the otherworldly hotel takes the story to another level. The portrayal of the devil and the choices made to give him what he seeks but without losing yourself played upon the theme of seeking safety and nurturing in a tumultuous environment. I only wished the hinted romance was developed more, steamy scenes are what I think Laura deserved after her harrowing journey! Perhaps a sequel? Highly recommend!

Brutal, heartbreaking and haunted. Arden wove her ghosts so effortlessly into the actual historical horror of her setting and came away with something viscerally raw. A war book and a book about the worst times that comes by its hope with difficulty but utter honesty.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read the e-arc of The Warm Hands of Ghosts. I am a *huge* fan of Katherine Arden, so this was a dream come true!

This was a huge departure from Arden’s previous works. There were many aspects of this book I loved, and some I didn’t.

What I loved:
I loved Freddie, Winter, and Faland. The battlefield myth surrounding the psychosis-inducing fiddler hotelier was intriguing and I think helped encapsulated the trauma that soldiers face. However I am generally a fan of magical realism, especially when it comes to chaotic characters such as Faland and the legendary Woland. I loved the World War 1 setting, and the inclusion of the Halifax explosion. Many WW1 stories are pretty American-centric so that departure was quite nice. You can tell that Arden put a lot of her heart into bringing this story to life as it was evident through her beautiful writing. The evolution of the relationship between Freddie and Winter was heartwarming and led me to wonder how often something like that happens in real life. I don’t think that is an aspect that is explored or discussed much. As always, Arden’s writing was wonderful and full of philosophical musings.

What I didn’t like:
Like many other reviewers, I think I would have enjoyed this book much more if it was solely focused on Freddie, Winter, and Faland. While I appreciate Laura and her determination to find her brother, I just feel like her and the other women’s characters and roles were not that captivating and I did not care for them nearly as much as I did for the three men. Arden knows who to write great women- take Vasya and all the other women from The Winternight Trilogy. The women in TWHOG just fell a bit flat for me, unfortunately. Perhaps if this book was longer and allowed for more character development it would be okay, but even at this length the three men were just more complex and dynamic, especially with Faland interfering.

I will share links to socials and websites where this review will be published closer to the book’s pub date.

If you know me at all you would know that I love a sibling story and I was hoping to love this one more than I did. When I first started reading the book I found myself unable to focus and immersed into the story wholly. The writing was jarring and silted to me that it takes me out of the story for the most part. As for the characters, I can see what Arden was trying to do with them but I wasn't fond of Laura at all nor find her compelling as a main character (another reason that it was hard to push onward with the book). I enjoyed Freddie arc and his pov a whole lot more. Overall I was really intrigued by the concept of the novel but the execution of it left much to be desired.